January 14, 2024- Week #8- winter is here

Welcome to winter in Iowa. Winter finally arrived.

Winter is making up for the fact it was late in arriving. We had 15 inches of snow on Wednesday. That was followed by maybe another 4-5 inches Friday, at which point the wind picked up.  The temperatures are falling. They went to double digit negative numbers last night. As I get ready to send out this post it is -16 degrees. We will not see positive numbers until the middle of the week. I will get the heavy gloves out.

The snow has blanketed the entire garden. This does insulate those little snowdrops that were poking out last week. The biggest problem is that the snow on Wednesday was a wet snow, sticking to all the trees and branches. There have been limbs down all over town. Fortunately we have not had any real damage. One branch in the pink dogwood is broken. Other plants/bushes, like the pink rhododendrum in the front yard, are all bent over.

We have recovered from COVID. This was our second time. It was a little worse than the first, which was a year ago. It was discouraging and just a little scarey. When I mention we just had COVID a lot of people say they also just had it. It is out there. Be careful.

Last week in the contest we had a tie between the white poppy and the wonderful blue chionodoxa. The blackberry lily finished a strong third.

Here was the full vote

This Week, which is Week #8

#1 Orange Bird 

April 22, 2023

The full name from the label is Potinara Love Passion 'Orange Bird' Rhyncattleanthe Love Passion. 

Education alert- if you want to, you can skip this next part and go on to the next picture.

OK- let me break this down a little.

Potinara is a 'nothogenus' comprised of crosses where the parent(s) are Cattleyas, Laelias. Brassavolas, and Sophronitis. Maybe there is also a genus rhyncattleanthe. 

A nothogenus is a genus that "denotes" a hybrid or a cross. 

Whatever. This is very pretty orange orchid that looks like it has some cattleya in it. 

Love Passion and Orange Bird seem to be names.

It was developed about 30 years ago.

It reliably blooms in April.

#2  Martian, the dwarf iris 

April 29, 2022

I do love my dwarf iris. Some of the names are good too. Martian was developed by a woman named Marky Smith.

She has this entire page with her iris.

https://wiki.irises.org/Main/Bio/HybridizerSmithMarky

She also devloped Lyonese (from week # 5 and Menehune, two of my favorites. Look at the website and click on one you have never heard of. Anubis is about as black as any could be.

#3 Orange Martagon lily

 June 10, 2023

I have added martagon lilies to my list of enthusiams. Martagon lilies are wonderful, and we are just getting started. I got my first one maybe 5 years ago. It did not do so well. I ordered 4-5 in 2020 and 2021. Particularly the ones planted in 2020 did really well in 2022. I see this group of plants climbing the enthusiasm list. 

What I particularly look forward to is having them form clumps.

This last fall I planted 10 more. This is one group of plants where the anticipation will help me get through the next few cold months.

The botanical name is Lilium martagon.

They are know for being the lily that can grow in the shade. That makes them ideal for my backyard.

The produce many little flowers on the same stem. Please see the bonus section for other pictures.

One somewhat discouraging thing about these beauties is that they sometimes do not grow the first year. What? I gather it is important to mark where they are planted for that reason. This is particularly true for ones that are planted in the spring. (I plant all my lilies in the fall.) 

What I did this past fall was order the labels before I got the plants. 

Here is a link to an article that will tell you more than you could want to know about martagon lilies.

https://www.lilies.org/martagoncd/index.html

#4 Pink Zinnia 

September 4, 2023

What can I say? It is pink. It is an annual that will carry color into the fall.

#5 White crocus 

March 15, 2023

They are simple. They come early in the spring. They make great pictures with the comples backgrounds. 

Bonus pictures

We finally have had pumpkin weather. That is when the temperatures will be below freezing and will stay that way. Who knows when we will have temperatures above 32. At this point I am just looking for a 20 somewhere in the longterm forecast.

The pumpkins that are already hanging from the walnut tree have lots of snow.

At this point I am carving the remaining 10 pumpkins and setting them on the porch ledge.

I discovered that if you did not want or need to put a candle inside the pumpkin you did not have to take out the seeds. It is so much easier.

Other martagon lilies

Right Now

This next picture may not seem like much. However it is the first paphiopedilum orchid I have ever managed to bring into bud. They are the slipper orchids. 

I got this plant in the fall of 2022.

This type of orchid is suppose to be easy to grow and bloom. I read that if you can grow African violets you can grow paphs. Well, for a very long time I could not grow violets.

I do have to wonder how long it will just sit there. Stay tuned.

Julia's recipe

Spinach casserole

This receipe is from Mrs. Davis, a church friend from years ago. We went to dinner at each other's houses, as well as going out to dinner, and we always had a lovely time. Mrs. Davis once asked what vegetables the children liked (they were elementary-aged at the time), and I said spinach and beets, but not together. So spinach dishes and beet dishes, including this spinach casserole, regularly appeared on her menu. The children did like this casserole, so it was a hit all around. 

The ingredients:

1/2 of a big bag of chopped spinach;

2 tablespoons or so of scallions;

2 eggs;

1/2 cup sour cream;

1/2 cup grated paremesan cheese;

1 tablespoon flour;

2 tablespoons butter; and

salt and pepper to taste.

I cleaned and sliced the scallions (white and green parts, both),

I plopped 1/2 of the bag of spinach in a saucepan. I no longer cook frozen spinach in water. Rather, I put the requisite amount of frozen spinach in a dry saucepan over low heat and keep an eye on it and a spoon handy. My goal is to have the spinach thaw. As it does, it creates its own liquid. Preparing it this way eliminates the wring-the-water-out-of-the-cooked-spinach step. 

While the spinach was melting, I made a white sauce in a skillet. No sharp corners; easier to whisk. When the butter was melted, I added the flour and whisked it around. Then I added the sour cream. A thick and luxurious white sauce. 

I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. 

Philip went to town with videos of my whisking away at the white sauce.

I think I added the parm to the white sauce at the end. Or maybe I didn't add it until I added the spinach. Either way is fine. 

When the white sauce was done, the spinach was done too. The spinach was pretty thoroughly dry so I just dumped it from the saucepan into the skillet. 

I stirred the spinach in, then tasted. I added a bit of salt (less than you'd think because of the parm) and a bit of pepper. 

Then I poured/ootched the spinach mixture into a casserole dish, which I had sprayed with non-stick spray.

A very busy photo. One of Philip's late season pumpkins-in-waiting to the right. Note how the stem serves well as a nose. And the bowl with food scraps, destined for the City's yard/food waste container. 

At present, we can't get to the back driveway where they yard/food waste cans live, with all the snow. So we have a bucket in the garage as a waystation. It's getting to be below freezing in the garage so this works. 

I baked the casserole for about 25 minutes until it was set in the center. I covered the dish with its lid, but I don't think that matters. Check after 20 minutes for doneness. 

We served it with salmon and sweet potatoes. A simple supper. 

Dinner did require 2 ovens - one for the spinach at 350 degrees and one for the salmon and sweet potatoes at 375 degrees - a little cool for salmon but it works. I am happy to report I have a double-hung oven. So handy.

A bit of leftovers - good for breakfast. 

And now an afterthought. What do you think is in the lovely blue and white bowl below? Blueberries with sugar? Some kind of plum confection? No. It's pasta with kale sauce. An unappetizing shade of dark blue gray, with parmesan cheese on top. I bought some beautiful curly dark purple kale at a winter farmer's market. Then I lost track of it in the back of the refrigerator (dark purple curly kale holds up really well). Earlier this week, when P. and I were feeling better (we got covid again - almost a year to the day from the first time, last January), I decided to make salmon with a side of pasta with kale sauce. This is a recipe from the Josh McFadden vegetable cookbook, and it appears somewhere on my recipe site. Lovely recipe; easy, fast, flavorful, healthy. But with green kale. Purple/blueingredients turn everything they touch dark gray. The dish tasted fine and it was amusing. But still.  

Odds and ends

I try not to write too much about the weather. At the same time weather really is important for the gardener, as well as anyone trying to decide what coat to wear.

There is that 33 out there in a week. It is something to hold on to.

It is cold out there. The dark time is here. 

I do find a little silver lining in that the Republicans will have to venture out tomorrow in Iowa to support those terrible candidates. 

Maybe, just maybe, this country will come to its senses. I wish I could say the same for Iowa. The legislature is getting back in session in Des Moines. I do not even want to read what is on the chopping block at this point. 

Hope can be elusive at times.

Then there is the world. 

Pray for peace. Give thanks for the developement of COVID medicine and vaccines.

Stay warm.

Philip